This invention relates to the clothing industry and, in particular, to an improved clothes clip for the bottom of a hanger.
For many years, various types of hangers in different shapes and sizes have been used to support all different types of clothing, including coats, jackets, shirts, pants and other articles of clothing. In many instances there will be some type of clothes clip on the bottom portion or rod of the hanger in order to hold skirts, pants and other articles of clothing. Among the various clothes clips that have been used are the ones shown in Morrish (U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,276), Gau (U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,085), Abdi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,075,935), Hunter (U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,278), Santapa (U.S. Pat. No. 5,402,558), Zuckerman (U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,634), Blanchard (U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,525), Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,819), Petrou (U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,462), Bond (U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,906), Zuckerman (U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,906), and Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,586).
These clothes clips are important to secure the clothes to the hanger. One of the problems with current clothes clips is that the biasing means loosens and the clip no longer securely holds the clothes, thereby causing them to fall on the floor. For expansive and delicate clothes sets and suits, garments that fall our from the clothes clip can be soiled or damaged or just wrinkled, thereby rendering them difficult to sell. In a home environment, the problem can be exacerbated, as the clothes may be soiled or wrinkled and can not be worm without dry cleaning.
It is common for clothing manufacturers to ship clothing on hangers, including hangers with bottom clothes clips to secure skirts, pants and other articles of clothing. When the clips fail or loosen, the clothes fall out off the hanger during transit. Necessarily this causes the garments to be soiled and/or wrinkled and, in some cases, damaged. Not only is there the extra labor of replacing the garments on the hangers, but there may also be the extra cost of cleaning and pressing the garments to make them saleable.
A typical coil spring hanger clip is shown by Wong (U.S. Pat. No. 6,023,819). As shown the free ends of the coil spring are biased between a pair of jaws. The problem with this clip is that the force of the coil spring is not symmetrically applied to the jaws of the clip. In particular, it may be seen that the free ends of the coil spring press against the inner faces of the respective jaws, but not along the central axis of the jaw face. Instead, each free end of the coil spring is offset some distance from the central axis. Accordingly, when the clip is squeezed and force is exerted against the jaws, the jaws will rotate to some extent due to the fact that the force of the spring is not symmetrically applied to each jaw. Over time, this causes a weakening of the jaws and of the clip. This renders the clip unuseable, and clothes will then start to slip out from the clip and they will not be held securely.
Therefore, there is a need in the industry for a simple, easy to use, inexpensive coil spring clothes clip that will not loosen over time and which will continue to hold clothes securely.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a clothes clip for a hanger that will not loosen and the coil spring will maintain uniform and symmetrical force on the clip for the entire useful life of the hanger.
This and other objects of the invention are obtained by a clothes clip with a coil spring that applies symmetrical force to each of the gripping faces of the clip.
The two free ends of the coil spring press against one of the gripping faces at points equidistant from a central axis of the gripping face. Then, a central loop of the spring presses against the other gripping face along its central axis. By this construction, symmetrical force is applied to each gripping face and there is no twisting or rotation. Accordingly, the clip does not loosen over time, and it continues to hold the clothes securely.